Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Head Space

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” mutters Gottlieb to himself on a constant repeat under his breath, holding the rifle up, as he slowly wanders down the metal corridor, towards the first intersection. “Fuck!” he hisses, quickly popping around the corner and aiming down the empty hallway.

 

He turns back ahead, continuing his mantra. “Shit, shit, shit -” This goes on for a while. The footprints lead around the station. Strangely enough, they head towards the observatory, but then seem to head back.

 

Perhaps, whatever it was, had tried to enter the door, only to find it locked.

 

There’s a new problem now, however.

 

Gottlieb looks down at the trail of footprints. They ‘end’ here.

 

It’s not so much that the creature disappeared, it’s just that the dirt that it had on its feet seems to have all fallen off by the time it got here and turned around.

 

“Shit…” hisses Gottlieb, one last time.

 

He has to get back to Kai.

 

Gottlieb contemplates telling Kai to start the alarm again, like he had done when he first woke up. But honestly, what’s the point? Who exactly else is here to react to the alarm?

 

Nobody, that’s who.

 

Okay. So, there’s some kind of horrible monstrosity on board along with himself. Good to know. One might question why Kai failed to mention such a thing. Perhaps this is a question worth asking, when he gets back to his station?

 

It did look like whatever it was had chewed out Kai’s ‘eyes’ back in hydro and in the vents.

 

Gottlieb lifts the rifle and makes his way back to the orbital gun’s firing pit.

 

Turning left, he returns to the hallway.

 

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— Something scampers behind him.

 

Gottlieb spins around, his finger on the trigger of the short bullpup rifle.

 

The hallway buzzes, humming with the usual electrical workings. But there is nothing there to see.

 

“Fuck off, aliens!” yells Gottlieb down the corridor, walking backwards. “This is a human station!” he shouts.

 

Now, obviously, Gottlieb is pretty sure that aliens aren’t real. At least not around here. After all, he’s lived in space for a while and never seen one, so he feels fairly confident in that assessment.

 

The more reasonable assumption is that, given that he has already identified that this is a magical world of some kind, that there is some sort of… magical creature on board.

 

— The alternative is that it’s someone’s pet that went mutant because of the cosmic event.

 

Both are good theories.

 

Gottlieb narrows his eyes. “Fuck off, mutants!” he yells and turns behind himself to the left, sprinting towards the shaft and jumping down it, not daring to look behind himself, like a child, running up a dark staircase at night.

 

He soars down the tube, reaching the bottom and then climbs over his makeshift wall of chairs, which apparently wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

 

“Kai!” yells Gottlieb, scrambling down past the gun to the console. “We got alien-mutants on board!” he says, slamming a fist against the console.

 

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